An attorney for Native American tribes in the West says a bomb test planned for next month at the Nevada Test Site has been postponed. Robert Hager tells News 4 the test was put off after his efforts to halt the "Operation Divine Strake" test over environmental concerns.

News 4 contacted the federal Defense Threat Reduction Agency and Nevada Test Site, the offices responsible for performing the large-scale bomb test. Representatives for both agencies said the test has not been postponed, and is still on schedule to be held on June 2.

A Nevada Test Site spokesman said the test is contingent upon resolution of Hager's lawsuit, and receipt of environmental permits from the State of Nevada. The spokesman said a revised environmental assessment was to be made public late today, with new information addressing public concerns over the bomb test.

Hager represents the Western Shoshone Indian tribe and others in Nevada and Utah who are concerned about radioactive dust that would be stirred up by the blast. He filed another motion to cancel the test on Friday.

Hager has seen the new environmental assessment and dismisses it as failing to address problems with the bomb test.

"The fact is, nobody has ever looked at this site to determine if there's radioactivity in the ground there, and there obviously is toxic, dangerous radioactive material from previous atmospheric testing at that site," Hager told News 4.The survey can be viewed at www.nv.doe.gov .

When you go to the site above you get directed to "Featured Items". This is the latest environmental assessment document -

It states on the Environmental Impacts section that there has never been used as anuclear testing site and radioactive contamination does not exist in the area impacted by the blast. Air dispersion modelling for the detonation products and the particulate matter...indicates criteria and hazardous pollutions will remain well within acceptable thresholds established by the NTS....

Gee, where have we heard them approve air quality after a blast and ensuing dust cloud? Oh yeah, on 911!

This is CNN's report on The Situation Room Aired April 27, 2006 - 17:00 ET-

Quote:

BLITZER: Welcome back. What if the United States does decide to go after weapons programs in Iran or North Korea? How can it reach targets deep underground? The Pentagon is now preparing for a massive test explosion at its own secret site.

Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has the story from the Nevada desert.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a matter of weeks, the U.S. government plans to carry out one of the largest non-nuclear tests ever. It will take place 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas at the Nevada test site.

This giant hole will be filled with 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, essentially, a fertilizer and gasoline bomb. It will take six days to fill the crater, just seconds to blow it up.

The Pentagon has brought CNN and other news organizations here to see the crater and the tunnel directly underneath it. The idea is to simulate an enemy underground weapons facility being hit by U.S. bombs.

(voice over): Doug Bruder works on advanced weapons technologies for the Pentagon.

DOUG BRUDER, PENTAGON WEAPONS EXPERT: There are some very hard targets out there, and right now it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to defeat with current conventional weapons. Therefore, there are some that would probably require nuclear weapons.

STARR: That is what the critics are worried about. The Pentagon insists the test is not going to lead to a new nuclear weapon. But what if weapons facilities are buried even deeper in the years ahead?

STEPHEN YOUNG, UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS: If we end up deploying new nuclear weapon that can attack underground bunkers, you build a deeper bunker, you can't hit it anymore.

STARR (on camera): We are standing directly under where the blast will occur during the test. If this were a weapons facility in North Korea or Iran, the hope is that much of what would be here would be destroyed.

(voice over): Critics of the test say the explosion itself is risky. It will send up a dust cloud 10,000 feet into the air. Dust from a site used for decades to test nuclear weapons. The Bush administration insists no radioactive soil will be disturbed.

The explosion is scheduled for early June, but anything from bad weather to lawsuits already filed over environmental concerns, could cause it to fizzle. Barbara Starr, CNN, the Nevada test site.

This transcript has some actually interesting things on it, one from former FEMA head Brown defending himself and accusing the republicans of-"I'm very disappointed in my own party out saying these kinds of absolutely ridiculous things." He does a good job of defending himself. Perhaps whenn Bush said "Brownie, You're doing a heck of a job," he was setting him up to be the fall guy. Another one is about Exxon oils profits this year so far and the ongoing lawsuit from the Exxon Valdiz disaster from 17 years ago.

This is what Democracy Now reported-

Quote:

Opposition Grows to Army’s 700-Ton Bomb Test in NevadaIn Southern Utah, scores of protesters gathered Saturday to protest the government’s plan to set off 700-tons of explosives next month in the Nevada Test Site. The explosion will be 50 times more powerful than the Army’s largest conventional bomb. Although the test – known as the Divine Strake -- will use conventional explosives, it is being conducted in order to better understand nuclear bunker buster bombs. According to government documents, the test is needed to determine the “proper nuclear yield necessary to destroy underground facilities.” The Pentagon estimates the blast will be so large that it will create a 10,000 foot-high mushroom cloud. Critics fear the dust could spread radioactive particles from old nuclear tests.

I'm going to sernd this out now and continue it on another post. I have lost the info that I collected twice now just before i was going to send it. Seems sometimes they don't want certain information out there. I'm going to copy this and try and send it. Hate losing work.

I'm not paranoid, but that doesn't mean it isn't happening.

_________________Completely sane world
madness the only freedom

An ability to see both sides of a question
one of the marks of a mature mind